Time Passes Quicker
by Kay-chan15
Summary: Just a quick little one shot about Taichi and Akutsu, two players from Yamabuki.


Title: Time Passes Quicker (...I hate it .)  
  
Summary: Just a quick little one shot about Taichi and Akutsu, two players from Yamabuki. Maybe could be considered shounen-ai if you want.  
  
Spoilers: Um, I guess up to the episode where it shows Taichi seeing Akutsu at practice for the first time...so...some episode in the 40's, ep. 49 or so I think.  
  
Warnings: Shounen-ai, if you want to see it that way. One of those 'blink- and-you'll-miss-it' things. I don't even know myself if it's supposed to be shounen-ai or not. Though there is one thing that could probably be explained away as shounen-ai hinting, since I actually can't come up with any other reason why I put it in there...  
  
A/N: First off, I know the title sucks. I just couldn't think of anything else to name it, I was even really, really tempted to just leave it as 'Untitled'. Anyway, besides that... this really didn't come out how I wanted it to or was expecting it to. It wasn't even supposed to have any dialogue in it, but then it did. And then I got this idea for how Taichi first met Akutsu... Ah, you'll just see when you read. I hope it's semi-ok at least ^^; Please review, and if you have to flame, please leave constructive criticism.  
  


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Taichi knew that most people were afraid of Akutsu. He even kind of understood why most people were afraid of his senpai too, though some people thought otherwise. He knew the grey haired boy got into a lot of fights, both involving tennis and not, and that he won most of them, too. Especially if they were one-on-one. And yet chibi Taichi wasn't scared of him.  
  
Maybe he wasn't scared because he thought even Akutsu wouldn't bother or want to hit someone as 'small and weak' as he. Maybe he was just still so full of childish innocence that he wasn't able to imagine someone actually hurting him, or even able to fully grasp the concept. There was always the possibility that the young manager just wasn't scared of pain. And then there was the even less likely possibility... that he actually trusted in Akutsu enough to believe that he wouldn't be hurt. But the idea of someone actually trusting and liking Akutsu so much as to not even flinch when threatened by the older boy seemed nearly impossible.  
  
And yet it seemed to be the case.  
  
A group of 5 freshmen watched as Taichi once again ran up to the boy, calling, "Akutsu-senpai! Akutsu-senpai!" Then stopped, told him something, and a moment later was once again pulled closer by the collar of his shirt and snarled at, before being none too gently released. The younger and smaller boy then waved to his back as said senpai walked away, before turning around and running back to the group of nervously waiting fellow freshmen.  
  
"Taichi-kun," one of the girls asked, "Are you okay?"  
  
"Huh?" He asked in response, cocking his head to the side. "Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"  
  
They all stared at him for a moment. Finally one of the boys broke the silence. "You just talked to AKUTSU-SENPAI! The same Akutsu-senpai who beats up people for fun!"  
  
That caused Taichi to frown and stubbornly say, "He's not that bad."  
  
"Why do you hang around him so much anyway? I know you're the tennis team manager or whatever, so you have to talk to him, but I'm sure that it doesn't require the amount of time that you spend with him!" someone else said. The others all added their agreement, saying that they had seen the two leaving school together, and how he often sought out the senpai at lunch.  
  
"He dangerous," said one the girl's with her hands on her hips. "You make us worried about you, Taichi-chan! Why do you hang out with him so much?"  
  
To that Taichi just gave an unusually solemn smile and said, "Isn't it about time we got to class?" The ones with watched then checked them, announced in panicked voices he was right, then turned on their heels and ran to the school, Taichi with them.  
  
They made it to class in time, and now Taichi sat at his desk by the window. He was still happy about managing to get that seat, especially now, in spring, when the cherry blossom trees surrounding the school were in full bloom and it looked beautiful. Maybe, he thought, some of Sengoku- san's luck was rubbing off on him.  
  
There was a test coming up in their class soon, and so the teacher was doing a big review today, trying to cram an entire semester's worth of information into their minds in one session. Bored, Taichi tapped his pencil on the desk quietly and looked out the window. He looked over at the clock once again and saw it had only been a minute since he last looked, though it felt like 15 at least, and it was still the beginning of class too. Old adages ran through his head, like, 'A watched pot never boils' (or in this case, clock), and 'Time passes faster when you're having fun!' But there was no fun at all to be had in this class, so he just sat there staring at the window, tapping his pencil, and looking at the clock every once in awhile.  
  
A sudden movement caught his eye and his grip tightened on the pencil. Akutsu was out there, seemingly skipping class again. He did this occasionally, as Taichi knew. But, hard as it might be to believe, Akutsu- senpai was actually quite smart, able to learn and understand things very quickly, and Taichi often begged him for help on some kind of school work. Now though, he watched as Akutsu's form, with his hands stuffed in his school uniform's pockets, moved out of view beneath the tress.  
  
Seeing Akutsu like that and recalling the earlier conversation made Taichi think of an old memory from about 3 or so months ago now.  
  
He was just leaving school that day after the tennis club had let out. He had turned the corner around the school gate and bumped right into the chest of a larger person, which caused him to fall backward and drop the notebook of game information he was holding. After he picked it up, he looked up to see that three of his upperclassmen from school were standing over him.  
  
He stood up and bowed to them, saying, "Sorry-desu!" He then straightened and looked up at them again.  
  
They exchanged glances, and then the one in front that he had bumped into smirked. "It's okay," he said coolly, "But maybe you can help us out. We're really hungry, see, but we lost our wallets."  
  
Taichi frowned. "All of you did?"  
  
The one who had spoken smiled even wider, and the other two behind him gave muffled snickers. "Oh yeah," he answered.  
  
Taichi smiled. "Okay!" He stuck his hands in his pockets with a serious face on as he looked through them for something. His face lit up again as he found what he was looking for. Holding out a single 100 yen coin, he trumpeted his trademark, "Da-da-da-dan!"  
  
They all stared at him with blank faces for a moment before the same guy who had spoken before smacked the coin out of his hands so it landed with a clatter on the ground and practically yelled, "Are you kidding me? What's with his cheap money? We said we're really hungry, freshmen!" He then grabbed the black backpack Taichi was wearing off of him with a cry from the smaller boy and said, "What, do you have no respect for senpai's or something? If that's the case, I guess we'll just take this then, it's bound to be worth something."  
  
Eyes wide, Taichi said, "But I need that, it has all my books and some notes for the tennis club in it and..."  
  
Pushing him in the chest, one of the other upperclassmen said, "Be quiet!" Taichi fell to the ground again with a thud and let out a cry of surprise on impact. The 3 boys then looked around at each other and laughed.  
  
"What are you doing?" The three became quiet at the sudden voice and looked over to see Akutsu standing there.  
  
The one Taichi had bumped into hoisted the freshmen's backpack up onto his shoulder and yelled back, "Nothing, get lost." Then he turned and said to his two friends, "Come on guys, let's go."  
  
There was a sudden sound of pounding footsteps, and then the next instant the boy was bent over in pain, holding his stomach, Akutsu standing in front of him. "Don't tell me what to do," the senior snarled at him, and then looked at the other two boys who were staring in shock. They cried in freight and pulled Taichi's backpack off their friend and dropped it to the ground, then grabbed his arms and started running away, calling over their shoulders, "We're sorry!!!!"  
  
"Hmph," Akutsu merely said in annoyance, turning and starting to walk away. Taichi watched him for a moment from where he still sat on the ground, then hurried to stand up and grab his backpack, before running up to Akutsu's side.  
  
When he reached him, he slowed down to walk beside him, and beamed up at him, saying happily, "Thanks-desu!" Akutsu just kept walking. "What's your name? Mine's Taichi Dan," when he didn't get a reply, he continued, "How did you move that fast?"  
  
Akutsu then stopped and glared down at him. "Stop following me," he growled, then looked away again and continued to walk. Taichi stopped and watched him go.  
  
The next day, he had been amazed and surprised to see the same senior who had saved him at tennis club practice. Remembering that, Taichi smiled and reached up his hand to tentatively touch the too big green headband that he had 'gotten' from Akutsu-senpai that day. Turning his head away from the window, he looked up at the clock once again, this time very happy to see that class was almost over.  
  


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A/N: I'm really not super happy with how it came out in the end. For one thing, it totally got away from me and turned into something I wasn't expecting at all when I started it. And I just still don't feel at all satisfied with my current writing style and abilities... Anyway, please give me your feedback in reviews, even if it's negative. All I ask of negative reviews is to tell what you don't like about it, or what you thought could be better. Not just like, 'U suck! How can u rite something like that?! It sucks!' That's called a senseless flame, and I'm sure no one wants to be known as a stupid flamer, ne? So please don't... Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it at least a tiny bit ^^ Please review. 


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